Students demand extra registration centres
Students of the University of Ghana (UG) and University of Professional Studies (UPSA) in Accra have appealed to the Electoral Commission (EC) to make extra provision for them to fully take part in the ongoing nationwide limited voters registration exercise.
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Whereas students of UG are demanding an extra registration centre on their campus to accommodate the high number of first-time eligible voters, UPSA students say they have been ignored because EC did not make any provision for a registration centre to be opened at their school.
In separate visits by the Daily Graphic to the two universities, some students from UPSA had joined their counterparts at UG to form a long queue at the only available registration centre set up close to the Great Hall of the university.
Some of students were also spotted sitting under a small tent waiting for the long queue to reduce in order for them to join it and register.
Background
The EC, on April 28, 2016, opened the voters register for Ghanaian citizens who have just turned 18, as well as those who had turned 18 and above but could not register in the last such exercise. This will enable them to qualify to vote in the upcoming general election.
The 10-day exercise, which is one of the major events ahead of the elections on November 7, is expected to be completed on May 8, this year.
According to the EC boss, Mrs Charlotte Osei, about 1.2 million Ghanaians were expected to register.
The exercise, even before it entered the second day, was marred by violence at some registration centres, especially in the Ashanti, Eastern and Greater Accra regions.
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Students frustrated
Some of the students who spoke to the Daily Graphic at the UG campus said the decision by the EC to set up a single registration centre in the school was a “bad idea”.
“How can you put up a single registration centre for a big university like Legon? For Christ sake, we are more than 2,000 students,” a level 100 student, Ms Docia Acheampong, said.
According to her, since the registration began seven days ago, she and her course mates had been at the registration centre for more than four days but had not registered because of the long queue.
“This morning I came to write my name at around 4:30 a.m. and it is now 1 p.m, I am still in this long queue. Looking at how things are going on here at this slow pace, I doubt if I can manage to register before 5 p.m.,” Ms Acheampong said.
One of the students from UPSA in the queue, Leticia Tanko, said she had no option but to move to UG since “there isn’t any registration centre at my school”.
According to her, apart from using the voters Identification Card (ID) to vote, she needed the voters ID card for a number of reasons”.
“I need the ID card to open a bank account and also register for other activities which demand the national voters ID,” she added.
EC official satisfied
An EC official at the UG registration centre, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said although there had been some challenges in registering the students, “we are confident we can finish before the final day”.